OMG, Iman and Daniella did it! On Monday, Iman Shumpert and Daniella Karagach won the 30th season of Dancing with the Stars, making Shumpert the first NBA player and the 12th athlete to win the competition.
They were announced as winners at the end of the broadcast and hoisted up like Mike Ditka and Buddy Ryan after Super Bowl XX.
In the finals, Shumpert was up against JoJo Siwa, Amanda Kloots, and Cody Rigsby, who all have professional dancing experience. After the broadcast concluded, he said on stage that the victory was for his mother, who is a huge fan of the show.
The congratulations poured in on social media. Carmelo Anthony had already been campaigning for Shumpert and then shouted him out after the victory. The Cleveland Cavaliers tweeted out a picture of Karagach and Shumpert holding the trophy, congratulating a member of their 2016 NBA Championship team. My personal favorite post came from The Athletic’s Shams Charania. With no sense of irony, his tweet about Shumpert becoming the first NBA player to win the competition read like he was breaking news that a team signed him.
No one was more excited for the victory than Shumpert’s wife, musician Teyana Taylor. Swipe to the second picture of her Instagram post about the victory to see her live reaction.
Shumpert and Karagach’s first performance of the night was a cha-cha to Earth Wind and Fire’s September. They gave a brief preview of that performance on ESPN’s NBA Today after giving a quick dance lesson to Malika Andrews and Richard Jefferson. Then came the final final. Their freestyle performance was a mashup of Missy Elliott’s 2005 smash hit Lose Control, and DJ Clent’s Chicago Juke classic, Bounce.
Yes, Shumpert brought footworking to network television and it was amazing. It absolutely took this writer back in his mind to a basement party in 2005 and had him footworking in his chair during the performance, and a little bit in his while writing this article — there is no video evidence of this, so don’t ask. Elliott and her dancer’s footwork in the Lose Control music video so it was a natural transition for the performance. Shumpert is from the Chicago area and said on Good Morning America that Karagach told him that she wanted to learn how to do the dance, so he brought in a guru from Chicago, King Kemo.
King Kemo and DJ Clent on national broadcast television. If only I could find a decent mild sauce spot in Los Angeles, this day would be perfect.
As well as Shumpert and Karagach performed throughout the season, what resonated most was how much fun they were having. You can see the smile on Shumpert’s face clear as day during their finale performances. Whether performing on a stage on being judged by millions of people, or in a basement after one too many vodkas, dancing is supposed to be fun. The two of them nailed that part even better than all of the throws and catches.
What’s next for Shumpert? On NBA Today he said that he is still trying to get on a team even though he hasn’t played since 2019. If a contender suffers an injury late in the season, why not take a flyer on him. If nothing else, they know he can still move.